Yesterday, gunluva stopped by our forum to say that he’d stumbled across some pictures of a woman done up in Cortana bodypaint – but that he was reluctant to post the URL, because there was artistic nudity involved. (I’d like to go on record that I appreciate his hesitance; while Halo is a Mature-rated game, there are still plenty of kids who visit this site, and the last thing I need are angry emails from offended parents.) He sent me the link via email, and I contacted the site’s maintainer, who explained that the same pictures could be found at DeviantART – with the added bonus that DA does an age check automatically. (Yes, you’ll need to sign in if you want to see them. Sorry. Upside – registration’s free.) If you like the work, you should check out the rest of his DeviantART gallery; there’s lots of other bodypainting shots. The woman playing Cortana is KayleeT – you can check out her modeling portfolio here.(Louis Wu 15:05:40 UTC)

Wow, is the weekend over already? I guess it’s time to get back to work… we got mail from Bitter Irony, the host of this week’s episode of The Riot (Sigafoos and Brathnok are MIA). It’s a short one – 12:30 long, 4.5 mb – but it covers lots of stuff. Go listen!(Louis Wu 14:52:30 UTC)

Injured Knee Productions has released Episode 11 of their Lost: Halostyle series. I know I said last month that I like this series – I’m upgrading that. I LOVE this series. Great cinematography, great storyline, great voices. And it makes me laugh. Go watch it. We’re hosting copies for them – WMP9 (48.3 mb) or QuickTime (48.5 mb). Then go hang out on their server and pester them to finish Episode 12. (Or start it, maybe. I don’t know how they work on these.)(Louis Wu 18:41:20 UTC)

xiLeF[i] writes to point out a Halo PC LAN coming up in February – the 23rd to the 25th, specifically. It’s taking place in West Yorkshire, UK, and entry fee is £15 for competitors, or £5/day for spectators (or £10 for the whole weekend). They’re working on sponsors right now for prizes, but if there’s money left over at the end, it’ll be rolled into funding another LAN this summer. Put together your best 3-player teams, and sign up! (British top teams e0! and uTi are going to be there.) More details can be found in this forum post.(Louis Wu 18:15:29 UTC)

Rockslider updated his Two Betrayals page with a bunch of new challenges – if you’re bored, try to complete them all!(Louis Wu 18:08:06 UTC)

Week five of MLG Pro Circuit went live on USA Networks yesterday – but if you missed it, you can see it online at MLGPro.com. MLG Orlando was a watershed; Carbon settled on the roster that would eventually win the National Championship, and Str8 Rippin dropped Defy for Captain Anarchy. Check out the action! Thanks, THE bean.(Louis Wu 16:57:58 UTC)

Yesterday, we got mail from TheForerunner, who submitted a bunch of pictures he’d rendered using 3dsmax. I thought they were great. I put them up on this page. Give ’em a look!(Louis Wu 22:33:04 UTC)

Cool. Jamie98s whipped up a version of the Halo 3 ad using the Halo 2 engine (well, with a little help). Good stuff! 6.6 mb in WMP9 format, 7.2 mb in QuickTime format. Grab a copy!(Louis Wu 22:31:17 UTC)

Heh – did you know Geoffrey Chaucer had a blog? And that he played Halo? Me either. Thanks, Anton P. Nym.(Louis Wu 21:59:52 UTC)

watchwood sent word that Halo Wars Heaven has opened – it’s a Halo Wars fansite. (The first?) Check it out – they’re already running a fan-fiction contest. Update: Ducain reminded me of Halo Wars Central, which we mentioned back in early October. Where’s that WD-40 for my steel trap? (It seems that Halo Wars Central isn’t online at the moment – a fansite started and abandoned well over a year before the game’s released? Ouch.)(Louis Wu 21:57:39 UTC)

Wow. Remember last week, when the World Series of Video Games announced that they’d made a deal with CBS Sports to broadcast Halo 2 gaming on the network? Yeah, well… the WSVG finals are this weekend, and four top MLG teams were supposed to be competing. All sorts of conditions had already been agreed to (they will be wearing MLG shirts during the tourney, and their gamertags will all be prefaced with ‘MLG’)… but things got ugly when the WSVG asked the players to sign a release allowing footage of them playing to be broadcast at a later date. (Read GotFrag’s take, or Amped’s take.) MLG told them not to do it, and for a little while, it looked like the MLG players might be locked out of the tournament. The GotFrag article has an update that suggests the two sides have come to an agreement… but it’s interesting to read the player reactions in the Amped article; many of the mid-level players feel betrayed by MLG for daring to make money in a different venue, while the top players seem to think it’s WSVG that’s pulling something shifty. We’ll see how it actually plays out, later today…(Louis Wu 12:06:14 UTC)

Red vs Blue Episode 85, ‘Yellow Fever‘, has been released for sponsors (free versions should be up by Sunday) – Grif tries to do the right thing with his sister, but he might have misjudged a little. Thanks to LX925 for the heads-up (and for the oh-so-true observation in that forum post).(Louis Wu 03:52:59 UTC)

Rob Oplawar stopped by to point out a new teaser trailer for his ambitious project Bridge CE (a working title only). Swing by and grab a copy – looks pretty cool!(Louis Wu 03:22:31 UTC)

You haven’t heard a lot from PraetoriaGuard in recent months (well, until a week or two ago) – but that’s not because they’ve been slacking. They haven’t been. They’ve put together a slick little promo vid to ramp up towards 2007 – you can grab it off their servers in QuickTime format (6.1 mb) or WMP9 format (1.8 mb). There’s a lot coming – hold on to your hats!(Louis Wu 03:18:16 UTC)

Up on Bungie.net, you’ll find the latest Bungie Weekly Update – it’s got an interview with Ed Ulbrich, president of Digital Domain’s commercial division, who answers some questions about the Halo 3 ad, and another with Stephen Dewey, the Sound Designer and founder of Machine Head, who did the sound design for the ad. And oh, yeah, a spooky Mister Chief. (Is that George Clooney in the visor reflection?) You can, as usual, find a searchable version of this update in our Weekly Update Archive.(Louis Wu 02:57:28 UTC)

There are lots of questions people still have about the Halo 3 commercial… but here’s an answer, hard and solid, directly from Frank O’Connor at Bungie. With respect to the children shown at the start of the film:

“Those kids are real actors. Not CG or MoCap. Even the grass is real in that shot.”

More of your questions will be answered soon – Bungie’s got an interview with Digital Domain that will go live before you’re as grey as I am. (Louis Wu 19:51:38 UTC)